Davis’ research is being driven by a political agenda which is designed to show that whites too were the victims of slavery. He wants you to know that White European Christians suffered at the hands of Black Muslim Africans. This is important so that you will also know that whites were not racist in their own enslaving tactics.
(Techno Racism) -- "It is very telling that when the combined might of the British, French, and Americans eventually ended the Barbary slave trade that one of the conditions was that the pirates would stop enslaving white Christians. However the pirates remained free to enslave Africans as much as they liked.
It is also telling that during the time of the Barbary Pirates the slave trade in the Americas resulted in approximately 10-12 million Africans being enslaved. (this information is based on actual historical records of the cargoes of slave ships and census data taken from plantations, in case you were curious. The European slavers kept thorough records, how else could you figure out how much money you were going to make on your cargo?)
It is not that Davis is completely wrong about the Barbary pirates and their practices, but rather he wants to argue that since the Barbary pirates were not racist in their enslaving tactics (as they would enslave anyone who was not Muslim) then also the Europeans were not racist in their slaving tactics. This simply isn’t true. At best Davis wants to bring some light on an issue that is often overlooked, he is definitely a bad academic, and he is actually and undeniably a racist."